Always
by Graphospasm
Summary: Mutual respect, always, but love? They were just too different. Sometimes it takes the most bizarre of circumstances to open our eyes. No wonder, then, that it took a something as strange as a magic gauntlet to bring them together at last. HieiXGenkai
1. Chapter 1

Always

Chapter 00:

"The Way Things Are"

* * *

Summary:_ Mutual respect, always, but love? They were just too different. Sometimes it takes the most bizarre of circumstances to open our eyes. No wonder, then, that it took a something as strange as a magic gauntlet to bring them together at long last. _

* * *

She found him on her porch. Or, more specifically, she found him with a hand on the door to her favorite tea room. She had been opening it from the inside; him, from without. The resulting staring contest waged for more than a minute before Hiei dropped his gaze and stood aside to let the aging martial artist pass.

Genkai did not address the fire apparition as she settled herself down on the edge of the red-painted porch. The sun had begun to set behind the distant mountains, light staining the sky like spilled paints.

"It's been a while," she finally said. "Two months? Three?"

Hiei, behind her, said nothing.

"I kept your room as you left it. Changed the sheets, but not much else." She shot him a cross look over her shoulder. "Well, are you going to just stand there all night or are you going to watch the sunset with me?"

He moved, then, and sat down beside her, maintaining a respectful distance as they watched the sun disappear. When the show was over, Genkai made to stand up, and failed.

"Damned knees," she grumbled. "They've been bothering me. Well, help me up, dimwit."

Hiei did as he was asked.

Genkai did not mind that the fire apparition trailed along behind her on soundless feet when she went into the kitchen, nor did she mind the way he stood in the doorway like he didn't know where to go once she began to brew a pot of tea. She simply suppressed a smile and tried to sound grumpy when she said: "Sit down or you won't get anything to eat."

Hiei, once again, did as told.

Beans, carrots, corn, potatoes, and leeks went into a large bowl. "Something bothering you?" Genkai asked as she began to dice the vegetables.

Silence but for the sound of her knife on a cutting board echoed throughout the kitchen.

"I'm lost," Hiei said.

Genkai stopped chopping. She turned and looked at Hiei.

He sat with his hands on his knees, eyes trained on the tabletop. His face held no expression.

"Would you like to elaborate?" Genkai prompted.

He met her gaze, and the emotions reflecting in the depths of his red eyes were torn in dozens of directions. "There's nothing for me to _do_," he said. His rough voice said everything his words did not, and Genkai understood the threads of desperation and confusion winding through his tone. No more tournaments, no more Spirit Detectives to fight, no more warring kingdoms to pledge alliance towards... Hiei was a wanderer, and this stood at conflict with his driven spirit. His state of existence stood anathema to everything that made him up as Hiei.

Genkai, by way of response, took two steps forward and held out her knife. Hiei took it and stared, unsure of what she was trying to say.

"Now you've got something," she said. "Cut up these vegetables. We're having stew tonight." She turned back to the waiting food. "I have firewood that needs chopping, and there's a leak in the western solarium's roof." She cracked a smile at the stunned fire apparition. "You didn't think I was going to feed you for free, did you?"

And Hiei, caught off guard, smiled back.

* * *

_NOTE:_

_Please give this unorthodox pairing a chance. I know it seems weird, but trust me, I know what I'm doing (I hope). The next chapter is more plot heavy, because this was just to set the mood._

_I love the thought of Hiei and Genkai together. When she died in the Dark Tournament arc, he gave Yusuke the right to kill Toguro, knowing how close their student-teacher bond was. He respected her in life as well as death, and although there were few moments where they were alone together, I feel that if she had been younger we might have seen sparks fly._

_This, therefore, is my take on an unexpected couple that could turn out to be more than anyone had ever hoped for. So, give them a chance. Let's see where this story takes us._

_~The ever-hopeful GRAPH._


	2. Chapter 2: Riddle

Always

Chapter 01:

"Riddle"

* * *

He lay the objects before her, and she frowned. "I thought you wanted a consult, Yusuke," she grumbled. "This is a riddle, and I don't like riddles."

"I don't think I'm asking you for too much," Yusuke replied with a flustered blush, and he reached to pull the objects back. Genkai stopped him, however, and bent to take a closer look.

"I may not like riddles, but I never said I was bad at solving them."

The four objects lay on a black cloth atop her tea table. The first seemed innocuous enough: a simple lump of coarse white chalk worn down on one side. The second was also innocent, if not a bit weird: a small golden bauble on a long chain with pin-prick holes all over its burnished surface. A latch on one side allowed it to be opened in half down the middle.

"May I?" Genkai asked as she reached for it. She did not wait for an answer and instead opened up the golden egg. A packet made of heavy parchment sealed with red wax fell out, and she tore it open to spill the gray powder within onto the table.

"Saffron, turmeric, and cocoa," Yusuke said as the pungent scents filled the room. "Traditionally used as youth preservers." When Genkai raised an eyebrow, Yusuke added: "Kurama told me, OK?"

"I didn't know you were still in contact," Genkai said.

"Only occasionally." The spirit detectives had disbanded prior to the tournament of the Three Kings. Kurama taught at a college; Kuwabara worked for a pharmaceutical company; Hiei wandered wherever the winds took him;Yusuke ran a paranormal investigation service out of the back of a ramen stand. Yusuke still payed Genkai regular visits, for the only other ones to routinely see her in her advancing age were the ice apparition Yukina (who was in the middle of pursuing a relationship with Kuwabara and grew increasingly busy as she took a job as a secretary for a human business man, intent on becoming as human as possible for her beau) and Kuwabara's sister, Shizuru. For Yusuke to ask for Genkai's help on a case was an unusual turn of events, but the martial arts master enjoyed the company regardless.

She looked to the third object, and her brow furrowed. "Is that what I think it is?"

The rat had been alive at one point, and Genkai guessed at roughly a thousand years ago. It looked mummified, shriveled—like beef jerky or an Egyptian king.

"A rat," Yusuke said, redundantly.

"I know. Dimwit." She lifted the fourth object from the cloth and squinted at it. Her eyes widened. "Someone's been dabbling in the black arts."

The photograph showed a small circle drawn in chalk on cement. Inside it lay a live rat, eyes staring wide open at the photographer. The golden bauble had been wound tight around its neck. She jabbed her finger at the picture. "So where's that rat?" she asked.

Yusuke pointed at the table.

"Well, shit,"said Genkai.

"The owner of an antique shop called me in about a week ago," Yusuke said, "after he found this in the alley behind his store. The rat wouldn't—or couldn't—leave the circle. I saw it clawing at an invisible wall with my own eyes."

"So how did it end up like this?" Genkai asked, eyes lingering on the dead animal before her.

Yusuke's look darkened considerably. "I thought I was seeing things," he said. "It... well, it aged to death. Its fur turned gray, got mangy, and fell out. So did its teeth..." He looked at his old mentor with a silent plea reflecting in his eyes. "Do you have any ideas about why someone would do this?"

Genkai looked away. Yusuke had left the door to her tea room wide open, and a warm mid-morning summer breeze wafted in. The mountains in the distance seemed as ephemeral as cloud.

"The herbs make it seem like an anti-aging spell," she said. "The results beg to differ." She gave Yusuke a measuring glance. "I almost think someone wants your antique selling friend dead."

"What makes you say that?"

She pointed at the photograph. "The markings, the ones right inside the circle's edge. Those are a spell in Latin, and they aren't all sunshine and roses."

"What do they say?"

"Literally? 'Death walks in life's shadow. The circle goes on forever. The cycle is traded for stasis. From me, death fly, to me, stasis bring.'" She looked up at Yusuke and smirked. "Pretty vague mumbo jumbo, but I know an incantation when I see one."

"What do you think I should do?"

Genkai considered the options for a moment. "What did the energy in the alley feel like?"

Yusuke looked away.

"You mean you didn't check?" Genkai snapped, chucking the small gold ball at her ex-pupil. It glanced off of his forehead with a 'ping' and fell to the wooden floor. "Dimwit! What kind of detective are you?!"

"Hey, I'm not used to work like this!" he snapped, rubbing his head. "Not like you are, either, you old bag."

Pride began to sting, and she placed her hands on the table in order to lever herself to her feet. "Only idiots blame failure on inexperience," she said. "Well, let's go get this over with."

Yusuke blinked up at her. "What?"

"You didn't think I was going to trust you to figure this one out yourself, did you?" she replied testily. "You're a screw up who couldn't find his own ass with both hands, and there's a life at stake here. And contrary to what you believe, I'm very good at things like this." She turned and walked farther into the house. "I'm coming with you to the city. We'll get to the bottom of this as soon as I get my coat."

"B-but Genkai—"

"But nothing," she said without emotion. "I'm bored, Yusuke. Let me have this much, at least."

He stood up. "Genkai..."

She turned and smiled at him. "Let your teacher have one last go before she... goes."

"Don't say that."

Genkai snorted. "I'm not going to live forever, Yusuke. You'd best accept that now."

Yusuke, once Genkai was gone, placed a call to his client. "I'm coming over now," he said. "I'm bringing in an expert on this one."

* * *

Away from Yusuke and his scrutiny, Genkai found her favorite black coat and her outdoor shoes and put them all on one at a time. Her bones ached, but the prospect of having something outside of her ordinary routine to do helped her ignore their cries of pained protest. Hiei had rubbed off on her in that way, his ever-present quest for things to accomplish having made her a bit more goal oriented in her advancing age. She was normally content to simply enjoy the comforts of her solitary lifestyle and embrace the occasional visits by Yukina, Shizuru, and Hiei, but for some reason she found herself itching to see the world outside of the temple compound.

It occurred to her, as she made to leave the cave-like room that she called her own, that Hiei had not come to visit her in almost two months, and with scowl she moved toward the desk that sat opposite her small bed. An old-fashioned ink brush and a sheet of paper were taken out of a drawer, and on the clean, smooth surface of the paper she inscribed a short note.

_I'll be back in a day or two,_ she wrote. _The dimwit needed my help on a case of his. There is food in the kitchen. Make yourself useful and get me a rabbit or two while you're at it._

After signing her name, she realized that she had neglected a salutation. She hovered between 'Dear Hiei' and just 'Hiei,' but eventually she left his name off altogether. He knew who he was, and besides, it wasn't even as if he was guaranteed to show up.

_Still, _she realized as she put her pen and ink away and took the note back into the tea room, _it's better to be safe than sorry. What if he shows up and I'm not here? He'll leave. I don't want that._

As she set the note down on the tea table, her brow furrowed. _Why the heck does it even matter?_

"Who's that for?" Yusuke asked. He had come up behind her and was in the process of reading the note over her shoulder.

Genkai very promptly smashed her heel down on her ex-pupil's foot, and his face was a study in badly-concealed pain. His cheeks puffed out and reddened, and his eyes very nearly bugged straight out of his skull.

"Never you mind, you nosy brat," she snapped, turning smartly around to march out of the room. Yusuke hopped along after her, cursing under his breath.

"But I do mind," he said once the pain subsided. The pair began to march down the temple steps, going made slow by Genkai's lethargic progress. "I didn't think you got many people out here, grandma. If I'd known, I wouldn't have worried so much. And besides, who hunts rabbits anymore these days?"

Genkai shrugged, trying not to show that she was touched (at least a little) by the thought of Yusuke worrying for her well-being. "This temple is a scared place, Yusuke. You think pilgrims have stopped coming just because the shrine's caretaker is getting old?"

"You still haven't told me who the note was for."

A pause. "Hiei," Genkai admitted. "He has been staying with me lately."

If shock was an Olympic sport, Yusuke's face would have taken the gold in the expression category. "Hiei? Seriously? I didn't think anyone even knew where that shorty was!"

"His visits are infrequent," Genkai said, "and he never stays for more than a few days at a time, but I've come to expect him every two months or so."

"Oh," said Yusuke. His grin spread like a blossoming flower. "I need to catch up with him sometime, so you might being seeing more of me, too, old lady."

Her lips pursed as if she had eaten something sour, but the look was a mere mask for the smile that threatened to show itself. "Heaven forbid," she said, and smirked.

* * *

_NOTE:_

_I really wanted this chapter to be longer, but the part about Genkai's note and the following conversation with Yusuke came out of absolutely nowhere, so I ended up having to cut the chapter short. I only added the note/conversation in after completing chapters two though five, and the resulting mess was so long I had to do a little reordering. Thus, an 1,800 word chapter instead of a 3,000 word monster. I just felt like having Genkai run off with Yusuke with very little preemptive was too fast—Genkai isn't that impulsive, after all, and she wouldn't forget about Hiei. _

_Thanks so much to my wonderful reviewers: CrazyCatLadyVia and Conjuring A Dome! You two rock my world!_


	3. Chapter 3: Corral

Always

Chapter 02:

"Corral"

* * *

The train ride into the city was a long one, so darkness had fallen by the time the pair made it to the antique shop. "Pretty nice place," Genkai muttered at the shop windows. The pieces of jewelry and furniture inside looked old, authentic, and expensive. A second story that lacked windows made the shop appear like a looming shadow. "Only old yuppies like me shop here, I'll bet."

Yusuke shot her a look that said 'Shut up, grandma, before my client hears you and drops me like a hot potato!' But instead he said nothing as he pushed open the store doors. A bell rang above them, and Genkai found herself assaulted by the scents of the past. Dust, wood, furniture polish, and the scent of books with fading pages made the place seem like the grave of a long forgotten era that even Genkai had trouble remembering. She glanced about, taking in the shelves filled with old books and vases and boxes and statuettes, but she did not make a show of her interest, exuding a professionalism that Yusuke, with his lanky strut and greased up hair, could not match. Dust made the overhead lights appear to shine through an aged fog, and shadows cast all objects into vague obscurity.

The shop owner sat on a tall stool behind a wooden counter with a built in glass case (watches and jewelry and old pipes shone like gems beneath the clear surface), and he was up and out of his seat as soon as he caught sight of Yusuke's green jacket. "Thank God you're here," he said, rounding the desk like a bullet flying from a gun. His voice sounded muffled; the soft surfaces in the shop did little to aid echoes. The shop owner was much younger than Genkai had anticipated, cutting a rather cute figure with his blonde hair and big brown eyes. Not as tall as Yusuke, though... He stopped dead in his tracks to stare at Genkai, and she noticed in a purely clinical way that he wore jeans, sneakers, an apron, and a button-down shirt as a sort of casual yet stately uniform.

"Is this your expert?" he asked Yusuke, and his eyes regarded Genkai with a conflicted range of emotions: respect for the elderly on the one hand and skepticism of her abilities on the other.

"Yup," said Yusuke, jerking a thumb down at his short companion. "Her name's Genkai; 'grandma' will do, too. Genkai, this is Kenji. He owns this place."

"Hmph," said Genkai. She eyed the young man with dead-fish eyes, seeing just how much passive-aggressive pressure he could take before she spoke with her normally acidic speech. "Family business, I take it."

"Yes." Kenji's eyes flickered between teacher and apprentice, back and forth like a buzzing fly. His hands twisted the hem of his apron nervously, leaving behind stains of sweat and dust grime. "My Dad started this place and I picked it up after I graduated college."

"Any enemies?" Genkai asked, and Kenji's face paled. Yusuke, meanwhile, tried not to look bored at the proceedings and peeved by Genkai's straightforward interrogation.

"No," Kenji sputtered. The bags beneath his eyes looked like smudges of soot set against his pale skin.

"Any competitors who might want to hurt you?"

"No!"

Genkai walked right up to him, and despite her height the glare she gave Kenji made a bead of sweat trickle down his temple. "Now you listen and you listen good," she said, voice resonating like a hiss in the shadowy shop. "The thing you found in the alley was a spell. It killed that rat but it was probably meant for you, and if you aren't straight with me I won't be able to protect you from it next time. You'll end up like that rat, and I don't think you want that, now do you, Kenji?"

Kenji shook his head, eyes wild and face growing more desperate by the second, and he looked to Yusuke for help for a pitiable glance of utter confusion. Yusuke only shrugged.

"Old lady's got a point," he said, and he grinned in a way meant to calm his client down.

Genkai's eyes blazed in triumph. "Now, answer me again," she said to Kenji. "Do you have any enemies who might want to see you dead, Kenji?"

If shiftiness could talk, Kenji would have been screaming, or at the very least crying like a small child who wanted his mother. Silence hing heavy on the air as he looked between Genkai and Yusuke with defeat rising in his expression. "No one wants me dead," he said at last, voice trembling like a leaf in a gale, "at least, I don't _think_ they want me dead."

Genkai smirked. "There, that wasn't so hard, now was it?"

"Who are they, Kenji?" Yusuke asked, eyes hard.

The shop owner, instead of immediately telling them, moved to the front door and flipped the 'open' sign around so that the shop appeared to be closed. He locked the door with a key he kept in the back pocket of his jeans and turned off the outside lights, and he pulled the door's and the display window's blinds closed to hide the shop's interior from the public eyes.

"I got a shipment of antiques from overseas in about two months ago," he said quietly, brown eyes bordering on panicked. "A competitor from Tokyo has been sending me offers for them all, but they haven't been near what I think I can sell them for so I've refused every time."

"Do you have a name?" Yusuke asked.

"The buyer calls himself 'Yamada,' but I don't know if that's his real name. But two days before I found the rat in the alley, he sent a man over to speak to me in person."

"Did he come in here?" Genkai asked.

"I didn't know he was their man until he came up to the counter."

"Dammit," Genkai swore.

"Is that bad, grandma?" Yusuke asked.

"It means he got a good look at this store's security and layout. Now it's easy for him to sneak around and set up a spell."

Kenji looked like he was about to vomit as he rounded the counter and sat down on his stool. "So you think they're trying to kill me to get to the antiques?" he asked. "That's just wrong! The antiques aren't even that valuable!"

"I'll be the judge of that," Genkai said. _Bet the damned idiot can't tell a Monet when he sees one. That would explain a lot of this. _"Can you take us to the items in question?"

"They're in the attic," Kenji said, and just as he finished getting off the stool a loud banging noise made Genkai, Yusuke, and Kenji all jump. Three heads swiveled toward the back of the shop as another banging noise, and then another, floated sharply over the still air. But then an even odder noise followed: an animalistic wail vibrating with pain and fear that made Genkai's skin crawl and heart race.

"Let me take a wild guess," Genkai said in a desert-dry voice. "That came from the alley, didn't it?"

"Sh-should we go see?" Kenji said, and with disgust Genkai thought she detected a trace of tears in his wide eyes.

"Lead the way, Yusuke," Genkai snapped.

"Letting me do all the dirty work," the ex detective grumbled, but he forged ahead through rows of dusty jewelery and books toward the back of the shop and, summarily, a tall wooden door marked with a glowing red exit sign. The door, however, was locked, and just as they neared it the doorknob jiggled as if someone was trying to get inside. Another bang made the door shake in its frame.

"Well, don't just stand there, idiot," Genkai snapped at Kenji, who was busy trying not to collapse behind her. "Unlock the damn door!"

At the sound of her voice the noises and the banging and the shaking... stopped. The shrieks, however, picked up in volume, rising to impossible heights like a choir of demons or tortured angels.

"R-right," Kenji choked out, and he took his keyring from his pocket and fumbled for the right key for several agonizing seconds. The door popped open with a foreboding creak one he disengaged the lock, and then the trio cautiously stepped out into the chilly night air.

The source of the yowling became apparent within a second: a cat—orange with brindled brown stripes on its arched back—scrambled to free itself from within a circle drawn with white chalk, and it screamed every time it reared up on its hind legs to ineffectually bat at an invisible wall with unsheathed claws.

"Not again," Kenji moaned, leaning against the door frame for support. The bauble around the cat's neck jingled like a tinny funeral bell, punctuating the sound of its screams like an ironic back up band, and the scent of the herbs within the bauble filled the air with sickening pungency.

"It's a cat this time," Yusuke said, stating the obvious in a voice more suited for snappy comebacks.

"They've upped the power of the spell by using a bigger sacrifice," Genkai said as she approached the frightened animal. The poor beast's fur, just as with the rat Yusuke had earlier described, grayed before her eyes and fell out in patches; the animals teeth dropped to the ground with a burst of blood and yellow saliva, but Genkai didn't even blink in surprise. She was in her serious mode, and nothing could faze her once she had centered herself on a certain task.

Despite the gravity of the situation, Genkai smirked. To be in the field again was absolutely ambrosial, no matter whose neck was on the line.

"What do we do?" Kenji said from the doorway, composure supposedly regained, and Genkai opened her mouth to answer. However, she never got to say a word, because from above them came the sound of a crash and a horrendous thump.

"The attic?" Genkai surmised. Another thump and an even bigger crash—breaking china or pottery, as far as Genkai could tell—thundered through the air.

Kenji paled, color draining from his face in a wave. "Yes. The things that Yamada is interested in are up there!"

"What do we do?" Yusuke murmured, coming toward Genkai to rest his hand on her shoulder. The cat, before them, curled in on itself and writhed, pained and terrified by its inexplicable confinement. Its skin dried up and crackled as they watched, and its eyes crusted over with a yellow film.

"We go check it out," Genkai said, and she headed back for the shop door with sure steps.

"Why do I feel like we're being corralled?" Yusuke griped, and the cat's voice tapered off into low, agonized growls. The animal breathed in one last, shuddering breath and fell still, drained of its youth an vitality before their eyes.

* * *

_NOTE:_

_This story is coming to me in very slow waves. Still, I hope you're enjoying it. We'll get to see some good GenkaixHiei within two chapters, so stay tuned for the good stuff =] __Oh, um, also: POOR CAT! I totally don't condone such cruelty, by the way. _

_Thanks SO MUCH to my reviewers: CrazyCatLadyVia, Conjuring A Dome, DaAmazingMeepers, and half-a-recess! You are all saints_!


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